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How to Ace Difficult Subjects with 5 Simple Tips

Difficult subjects are the worst for your self-esteem: Admit it. You’ve wondered.
You usually get good scores on tests. You’re proud of yourself. Your parents are, too. But there is still that subject at school that feels overwhelmingly hard for you. How can you tackle your difficult subjects?

You spend hours trying to study on these difficult subjects, you take notes, and you go through your textbooks a thousand times.
And you’re wondering… Do you just have to try harder, to hustle more? Or is it that, really, you are not good enough, not smart enough to understand what the heck that professor was blabbing about in class? The real answer is no. You are not dumb, and you are definitely good enough to understand even the hardest study materials. The problem? Nobody has taught you how to do it yet. Hopefully, the tips below will finally take your pain away and will teach you how to do it the smart way.

1. Pick the Brains of the World Wide Web for your difficult subjects

You are forgetting something really important.
Information has never travelled faster than it does nowadays. People from all over the world create things every day to fulfill their potential and to help other people like you and me.
Long live the Internet!
So, no matter what you may be studying, you can be sure that somebody else has studied the same thing before, and has shared his knowledge on the World Wide Web. Consequently, the web is full of presentations, insightful articles, tutorials, ebooks, and lessons.
Not only will they give you easy explanations on the theme, but most of them are also free to use. You could try different learning platforms like Khan Academy, Udemy, Youtube and of course, the all-mighty eFaqt. With eFaqt you can pick the brian of one of our 100.000 users, by importing their notes and flashcards on your difficult subject. This is free! Sign up here.

2. Swap Fancy Words for Simple Words

Books, textbooks, and other materials for school use an academic writing style. It sounds complicated, it looks terrifying, and it is the reason why you think you can’t study those materials, especially the ones for your difficult subjects.
But you can do something about it.Grab a marker, underline each fancy word or each word that you haven’t heard of before, and then simply look them up in the dictionary. Furthermore, you can replace them with simpler words that make sense to you.
You may still not understand everything you read, but you will definitely remain with a few clear ideas.

3. Stop Taking Notes. Make Mindmaps Instead

We all know that taking notes is useful. By writing down the main ideas of a text, we come to understand the relevant points and we also manage to memorize this information faster.
The truth is, however, that there are many other techniques that are more efficient than just taking plain notes. Mindmapping is a popular example.
Just like taking notes, creating mindmaps allows you to have the big picture of a study material before your eyes. The difference is that, by studying with mindmaps, you will alsosee the links between the main points of a text.
This way, things will slowly begin to clear up for you and you’ll actually understand all the details, not just the main ideas. In other words, you’ll use your logic to connect the dots in your mind. In eFaqt, you can make mindmaps as well! Here is why you should study with mindmaps and here you can read a quick tutorial on how to make them (with eFaqt).

4. Working Sessions with Friends Are the Best

You hate studying alone, don’t you?
Well, you don’t even have to.
In fact, research shows that studying with friends will not only increase your productivity, but will also help you gain a better understanding on the study materials.
Why?
Because working with others means having access to their brains.
When studying alone, the only thoughts and explanations you have at your disposal are yours. And when things don’t make sense anymore, it can be really frustrating, especially with difficult subjects!
But setting a studying session with your friends will provide you with many other perspectives of the study materials. If you don’t understand a certain point of the lesson, someone else can explain it to you in his own words. And as you communicate on the matter, you will subconsciously simplify the materials together until they become a piece of cake.

5. Use Silly Analogies for Smart Ideas

Albert Einstein used to say, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
And it’s true.
Whenever you think you understood something, test yourself by trying to explain the idea to a four-year-old imaginary child. If you have a little brother or sister, that’s even better!
A child will hardly understand what a solar eclipse is, for example. But he will understand silly analogies for this phenomenon.
And you can trick your brain to understand them as well. The exercise may be hard, but it will help you have a deep understanding on your most difficult lessons for school.

Ready for some more help tackling your difficult subjects? In eFaqt you can find free summaries from other students, or you can create and practice your own summaries. Study faster, remember more, and connect with your study mates! Don’t have an eFaqt account yet? Create a new account in one minute!